Important Alert: USB devices can easily transfer viruses!

Today I'm going to use my blog to help push a message that I think is important. Even though this post is long and techy and only a fraction of you will want to read beyond this sentence, I still think it's worth reading - especially if you are running Windows XP and haven't updated your virus protection software recently.

Over the last few weeks Virus Stompers has been very busy. This is a good thing in that people are finding us and using our services. And for that we thank you. But unfortunately these people are needing our help because there is a very nasty virus circulating right now that is highly infectious, and I thought it might help if I shared what it's about.

Basically, there is a set of Trojan files that are able to embed themselves onto your hard drive, which have the ability to very quickly transfer themselves over to an external USB device such as a thumb drive, SD card or external hard drive. These files are:

trojan.dropper
trojan.fakealert
trojan.agent

And not only will they write to your thumb drive, but they will also write themselves back to any computer you plug it into - instantly! I've experienced this myself. Here's what happened...

The other day a local customer called because his computer had lost the ability to run anything. Because he was unable to access the internet he brought his tower over to our office. Normally in this situation, we will boot the computer up in safe mode, install our virus clean-up programs and fix the problem. But in his case, the virus had worked its way down into his operating system and we weren't able to even run the computer. So, I took the next step, which is to remove the hard drive and scan it from one of our shop PCs instead using special USB cables.

In this case the virus was so new that my own PC's software wasn't even aware of it and it wrote itself onto my hard drive as well, totally unbeknownst to me.

Fast forward to later, after we had finished cleaning up his hard drive and put it back into his tower. I needed to put a file onto his PC so I used my thumb drive to copy it from my (now infected) PC back over to the customer's freshly-cleaned PC - which I had yet to update with the latest virus protection. BAM!!! within 2 seconds the virus was transferred right back onto his PC and I had to do the whole cleanup all over again.

D'oh!

So here's the takeaway lesson for all of you...

If you are running Windows XP (Home Edition or Professional), your PC is set by default to automatically run anything that is plugged into the USB port. Plus, most thumb drives also have a file (that is hidden) called autorun.inf that will automatically run when you plug it in as well. This is why you always see that box open up that shows you all the contents of your thumb drive so you can select which things you want to open. However, the same functionality that shows you that box is also the same functionality that runs the virus. What happens is the virus writes itself to the the thumb drive's autorun.inf program and is programmed to transfer itself to whatever host it is plugged into.

So what should you do?

Delete the autorun.inf file from your thumb drive. You won't be able to see it until you check the "Show hidden files and folders" radio button in Windows Explorer under the Tools, Folder Options, View tab. Deleting this file will prevent your thumb drive from opening automatically when you plug it in.

If you don't want to delete the autorun.inf file from your thumb drive, you should at least use this method of opening your USB devices instead:

Hit the WINKEY+E (hold down the key with the Windows symbol on it and press the "E" key at the same time) to open Windows explorer. Then click on the USB drive from the left hand file tree as opposed to just double-clicking it from the list of drives on the right side panel.

Doing it this way will not run the autorun.inf program (including any viruses resident within it), but will directly display the contents of the drive instead. From there you can open the files you need without the risk of executing the autorun.inf virus.

Turn off the Autorun feature from your PC. Unfortunately, there is not a simple button to check in Windows XP to do this. But fortunately, I've written the instructions here just for you (see Recommendation 1 under Other Recommendations).

Make sure your antivirus software is running, and most importantly - UP TO DATE!

After you have turned off your autorun feature and updated your antivirus software, scan all your external USB devices.

I know this all seems boring and complicated, but this virus is very destructive. In fact, if left untreated it will destroy your operating system to the point that your only option is to reformat your computer and reinstall Windows, which we had to do for one customer just last week. So if this post keeps even one of you from having to go through that, then it was worth it. And as always, please feel free to ask us any questions you have about your PC or viruses in general.

Also, if you want to see our Facebook "tips of the week" that highlight the latest threats and contain helpful tibits such as this, you should befriend Virus Stompers here. In the meantime... stay clean!

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"Bill-isms" - Part VII

 My dad's name is Bill.

For those of you who weren't reading this blog 2 years ago, "Bill-isms" are little quotes my dad says on an all too-frequent basis. None of these are actually funny in a "ha ha" kind of way, but are funny to those of us who know Bill - much like the way it's funny when your brother stubs his toe really hard and hops around the living room on one foot swearing his head off. But to get a better feel for why these sayings are so special, I encourage you to click the "Bill-isms" tag at the bottom of this post and check out the previous ones. They're a quick read and will give you a very good understanding of what I had to deal with as a kid, and why I am not responsible for how I turned out like I did.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I've written one of these posts, but after spending a weekend with my father, I came to the conclusion that I no longer have a choice. There are just too many unrevealed Bill-isms to ignore. I seriously thought I had captured them all but my brother and I took notes these last few days and learned we had missed a few.

So that being said, here is the latest additions to the apparently unending list of things my dad has said since... well, forever:

"If you have so damn much energy go out and mow the lawn!"
This was my dad's escape valve, for when us kids were driving him nuts by being too loud and obnoxious inside the house. He knew we'd rather shut up and be good than go out and mow the lawn.

"He's a good example of a bad example"
This one is pretty self-explanatory, but I've always liked it. You'd be surprised how applicable this can be when you need a way to quantify just how much of a loser someone is.

"Don't break it, it's not paid for yet"
Bill says this every time he sees you handling something fragile or expensive. This is an automated response and he's probably not even aware he says it.

"I'll have a honeymoon sandwich"
The setup for one of his favorite jokes, as in, "I'll have a honeymoon sandwich... lettuce alone."

"Nothing's impossible. The impossible just takes a little longer"
Not unlike one of Pavlov's dogs himself, Bill will fire this one off anytime someone is dumb enough to say, "that's impossible" within earshot of him.

"I'll give him a tip. Get out of town."
Bill will say this if you ask him if he left a tip for someone, such as a server in a restaurant. My brother and I were trying to figure out what this even means, but unfortunately it doesn't need to make sense for Bill to use it.

"Who fired that round?"
Bill's attempt at passing off his own gas-passing as a joke. This could be considered a variation of the old "the one who smelt it, dealt it" adage that suggests if you're the one who mentions the fart, then you're also the one who did it.

"I like you. You have nice Chinese name."
A story Bill likes to tell about when he told an old Chinese guy that his last name was "Lee" one time. The guy went on to say, "Lee means 'plum' in Chinese. It also means 'good luck.'" Like I've said before, these Bill-isms are not necessarily "ha ha" funny, but they are funny to us.
(Updated: Remarkably, this Chinese symbols page confirms this. This is highly unprecedented in that Bill's sayings usually contain some mixed-up version of the original source of his Bill-ism)

"Foresnips!"
Said every time he's working on something and you're the one handing him the tools. Bill thinks it's hysterical that he would be asking for what he thinks is a forceps used for circumcision while working on a lawnmower for example. I'm pretty sure there is no such tool called a "foresnips," but that only adds to the Bill-ism-ness of it all.

"Ralph... Buick..."
Part of a punchline to a joke I don't even know the actual setup for. It has something to do with a guy who is hung over and throwing up outside, as in... "I think he's out in the alley selling cars to some guy named Ralph. I could hear him saying 'Raaalph... Buuuick...'" This is a classic example of something Bill said so many times during our childhood that we stopped listening to how the joke actually went sometime around grade school.

"It's not what you know, it's who you know!"
Used whenever Bill hears you discussing the prospect of trying to get a new job.

"Merchants thrive on the extravagance of youth"
Bill would provide this macroeconomics lesson to us kids anytime he felt we were about to spend our money foolishly.

"Experience is a good teacher but it's a grim teacher"
Bill's not-so-tender way of consoling you whenever something has gone wrong.

So there you have it... my latest installment of Bill-isms. And just so you know, I don't write these in the hopes that you'll enjoy them. I write them as a way of healing through revealing. Kind of like the way a therapist will ask you to talk about the things that have caused you pain throughout your childhood. Only in this case the pain was always in my eyes... you know, from rolling them too far back into my head.

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In the air there's a feeling of... road rage?

In a few days the holiday season is going to be full on, and people will go insane.

It will start with Black Friday, when millions of people will ratchet their tired butts out of bed at 3 a.m. to stand in front of Best Buy for an hour in the hopes that they will get an iPod Touch or laptop for under $200. And, as an added bonus... if you live in MN you have a 90% chance of it being 25 degrees or colder that morning!

Then for the next 4 weeks, every store in every mall in every city will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. in an attempt to squeeze every possible shopping dime out of the holiday zombie collective. But I understand why they do it. After all, businesses like this need to sell their swords SOME time.

But for me, the biggest insanity will be the traffic. I don't have to shop on black Friday and I don't have to expose myself to the mall madness, but I do have to drive. And for that I am most uptight.

St. Cloud is a relatively small town, but because we are a central retail hub for a very large rural area, we see a LOT of traffic squeeze through our undersized main street corridor. And it is especially maddening during this most wonderful time of the year.

Nothing makes me crazier than sitting at a stop light for not one, but two and sometimes three cycles while the line of cars in front of me attempt to inch their way through a grid-locked intersection. I simply cannot stand driving in those circumstances. Last year, during this same period, my wife asked me to run over to the supermarket because she didn't have everything she needed for the fancy Christmas dinner she was preparing.

"Really?" I whined. "Do you really need to make that? I know there's like 3 boxes of mac and cheese in the cupboard.  No, seriously - we'll sprinkle some paprika on it."

Ugh. I'll do everything in my power to not be subjected to that torture... like shop online instead of going to the mall, work from home instead of going to the office, and watch this guy on TV instead of going to church. Hey, I told you - I really don't like traffic.

I hate it so much in fact that in one of my very first blog posts I wrote that I wanted to move to North Dakota because "... in the entire state there is only one intersection that has the potential to gridlock." Doesn't that just sound like paradise?

I know, I'm a whiner, but it's only because it has finally sunk in. Normally every year I get surprised all over again when I innocently head out for a gallon of milk and it takes me 2 1/2 days to get back home. But not any more. Thanks to this blog I now remember what I have to look forward to. Umm... thanks, I think.

Anyway, that also just reminded me of one more thing I need to do... run out and grab a boatload of mac and cheese before tomorrow!

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Wanted: Your favorite bloggers

Every now and then I take a trip through the comments on your blogs and follow a link back to a person I've never read before just to see who they are and what kind of blog they have. Sometimes I stumble on someone that I think I might want to read again, and sometimes I just move on. It's an inexact science but certainly one way to grow your list of friends.

But now I'd like to try something different. Kind of a social network suggestion kind of thing if you will. What I'd like you to do is leave me 3 links to bloggers you don't normally see me visiting and who don't show up here in my comments. Knowing what you know about me... my interests, sense of humor, shoe size etc, see if you can recommend some new bloggers that you think I might like. Then over the next few weeks I'll stop by and see if we have anything in common. Kind of like speed dating but only really slowly and not with the intention of taking them home.

Anyway, that's all. I think this will be fun... and thanks for playing!

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... which will be good experience if I ever want to become an undertaker

It was subtle, almost imperceptible - yet I knew something was there. Almost like the way the light from a faint star disappears when you look directly at it, yet you can see it in your peripheral vision when you look away.

But every time I opened up the kitchen pantry door, there it was... a slight whiff of something. Eh... must be some odd mix of spices and dry goods I told myself.

But then this morning I decided to investigate further.  I started at the top. Sniff, sniff. Nothing there. Then the 2nd, 3rd and 4th shelves. Nothing again. Finally I knelt down, twisted my neck to the right and looked waaay in the back at the bottom, behind the cookie sheets and cake pans.  

Huh... what is that?

I reached back deep into the cupboard and grabbed a plastic bag, heavy with potatoes. I wonder if there's anything wrong with these?

I removed the plastic clip, opened up the bag, sank my face into the ancient spuds and inhaled... but only until I started gagging, and coughing, and dry heaving, and running out the back door so I didn't purge on the kitchen floor.

So yeah, you might say I found the offensive smell. You might also say I learned what a rotting corpse smells like.

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Ten Questions with Jeff

My recent interview with Diesel was so much fun that I decided I wanted to do more interviews. Unfortunately, I didn't actually ask anyone else if they wanted to be interviewed - so that makes it a little tough.

Then I remembered this post from 2 years ago where I simply interviewed myself, and  how huge of a hit that was. Problem solved! 

So here I am again, chatting with myself. Enjoy.

#1

Sup.






Not much, sup with you?

#2

 Last I heard you were looking for a new job. How's that working out for you?


Well, in the last month I've applied for 23 jobs. Miraculously, 9 of them have offered me positions and I've accepted them all. It's my feeling that it's better to have too many jobs than not enough.The only drawback is I have to work 167.5 hours per week. But I do have a spare 1/2 hour in there to take a shower, so it's not all bad.

#3

I haven't heard jack about The Receders in months. Did you guys break up?



Funny you should mention that. NO. Our bass player had to take a new job in Nashville and for some reason he wasn't interested in flying back to Minnesota every month to play a biker bar for no money. He's kind of quirky that way. Bottom line is we found a new guy and we are in the process of preparing for our first concert in January. Where, you ask? Why right here! Tickets went on sale today, so if you're interested in attending, get them now. The last time we played there we sold out in 2 weeks.

#4 

What about Austin's Skate Plaza project? Is that thing ever going to get built?



Man, it's like you're psycho psychic or something. Next Tuesday the city is holding a public input meeting where people can show up to express their support (hint hint) or concerns about the project. The mayor has indicated that if there are no major roadblocks after that, the new skate plaza will open on July 4, 2010 - exactly four years to the day that Austin approached him about building a skate plaza. If you're interested in following the progress, you can join his Facebook group here.

#5

Ok... word on the street is that your side business, Virus Stompers, is doing pretty well. Do you send the people who write viruses flowers and candy for supplying you all that business?

Hardly. Those scumbags should be hung up by their trojan horses and flogged. The world would be a much better place if every time you used the internet or email you weren't at risk of being infected. Fortunately, if you follow some basic safety and maintenance guidelines you should be just fine. In the meantime, if you would like to be updated on a weekly basis with helpful safety tips and virus-related news, you can always become a Facebook fan or follow us on Twitter. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from these little info-tweets.

#6

That was like 3 advertisements in a row. Aren't you ashamed?



Oh hell no. That's exactly what personal blogs are all about. Everytime we publish something we're basically advertising for ourselves in one way or another, whether it be our family, our recipes or our writing. Personally, I'm always selling my humor in the hopes that someone from a hit sitcom or humor magazine will read my blog and beg me to work for them. I hear it happens all the... well, I hear it happened once. But still, that's not never!

#7 

You just used the word "everytime" in that last answer. Is "everytime" even a word?



I always thought so, but according to the online dictionaries it isn't. I wonder if anyone else uses it.

#8

What the hell is going on with blogs these days? Is it just me or are blogs becoming yesterday's news?


It seems that as more and more people are coming online with things like Facebook and Twitter, more and more people are also moving away from blogs - both in terms of writing them and reading/commenting on them. 

I fear the heyday of blog activity is waning. My comments have dropped from the high 30s a few years ago to 10-15 these days. Likewise, the number of newly published posts in my feed reader is slowing down at a rapid rate as well. It just seems there are too many other distractions out there and people only have so much time. Personally, I recommend that people visit View From The Cloud first and then check their FB statuses etc next. But that's just me.

#9

What are you wearing?



Ok, that's just weird. Even for you. But if you must know, I'm wearing a lovely cotton tee-shirt and jeans, just like you.

#10

For some reason I don't believe that you really got a new job, let alone 9 of them. Are you BS-ing me? 


Wow, nothing gets by you, does it. The straight answer is no, I didn't get a new job. But I do have a job interview tomorrow, so wish me luck!

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Mystery Monday

You ever see those puzzles where they show you two pictures side by side and you have to try to figure out what is different about them?

Well I've got a good one for you. Here are two different photos of Austin, virtually indistinguishable in every way. But I've added some subtle differences to fool you. See if you can spot them.

I know... this is a tough one. It's like you're looking at the same picture twice. Well, let me help you out.

What's Different?
1. The hat
2. The extra shirt
3. The picture over the other shoulder
4. The crucifix
5. The hand railing

Oh, and one more slight difference...

6. The angry look that says I want to bite your face off versus the smiling, happy face.

I guess some people are just not morning people. It's amazing what an hour can do, isn't it? Oh, and also having your braces removed after 3 years. Yeah, that helps too.

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My spam has a certain appeal

Hmm.... I'm a little confused by this solicitation spam I received in the mail yesterday.

First of all, why did they circle the $100 box? I understand how subliminal suggestions are supposed to work, but did they really think this was going to sway me to donate $100? Where's the 25¢ box? I think I might be able to get behind that one.

Then, in an attempt to woo me into donating, they included this shiny metal angel medallion. Granted, I did become a fan here, but please remind me again... how is this supposed to encourage me to donate?

I suppose I could use it at Chuck-E-Cheese to win a fabulous rubber pencil topper.

Then they add a "do not shred" disclaimer on the envelope.

My guess is, they need your donations to pay the settlements to all the people who have been injured by flying paper shredder shrapnel after attempting to dispose of this letter.

Ah... now I understand what the "suffering" thing is all about. So let's see if I've got this straight... they send out a letter with a metal object that maims people, and then ask for $100 to help pay for their lawsuits and injuries.

I think I nailed it. I'm usually pretty intuitive about these things you know.

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10 Questions with Rob (Diesel) Kroese

As many of you know, my friend Rob (Diesel) Kroese (pronounced KROO-see for some unknown reason) recently published his first novel, Mercury Falls.

Mercury Falls is an extremely clever and surprisingly deep book about how the Apocalypse is supposed to unfold, and the characters who are unfolding it. What's not surprising is why it's clever and deep.

I've been following Diesel as a blogger for several years and find him to be one of the wittiest, smartest and most snarkastic humorists in the business - which is exactly what you want in an author of a novel about a smartass Angel who is meddling with Armageddon.

I see big things coming for this man, so I decided to interview him while he was still unknown enough to talk to me. Then later, when he's all "Ooh... I'm a big famous author guy" I can crack open this post and say I knew him when. Enjoy.

1. Your book's storyline is very well organized and complete. Describe your writing process. Did you have the whole plot mapped out before you began writing it, or did you just kind of start it and make it up as you went?

I definitely didn't start from any kind of outline. For me, that makes writing too much of a chore, although I can see why some people do it. I started with the character of Mercury, who is this sort of disillusioned smartass of an angel. It seems like angels (and demons) are always depicted in books and movies as being these unquestioning agents of higher powers, and I wanted to challenge that idea, so I came up with this angel who is basically well-intentioned but has absolutely no interest in doing what he's been told to do. And since Mercury is such a big, overbearing character, I decided I needed a more down-to-earth foil that readers could relate to, so I came up with Christine, a reporter whose job is essentially to cover the apocalypse (which turns out not to be as exciting as it sounds). I contrived a situation for these two characters to meet, and then kind of went from there. The problem with writing this way is that you end up writing yourself into a lot of dead-ends, and you do a lot of backtracking and rewriting. Still, for me it works better than writing from an outline. I'm too much like Mercury -- if I have an outline, I feel compelled to rebel against it, even if I imposed the outline on myself.

2. Armageddon, the Apocalypse, destiny... these are heady topics. Do you ponder these things for real, or do you just find them entertaining topics to write about?

Honestly, no. I don't think much about these things, at least not in any specific sense. In fact, a lot of the book's humor comes from the attempts of human beings (and angels) to understand concepts that are way beyond their pay grade. Anybody who tells you with a straight face that they understand the Book of Revelation is not to be taken seriously.

3. I suffered along with you as you struggled to get a book deal and ultimately ended up self-publishing instead. That must have been very frustrating. Did you think it was going to be easier? How has your view of the publishing industry changed? Do you feel jaded by this experience?

I knew it was going to be hard, but not as hard as it was. To be honest, I think that if I had finished Mercury Falls two years earlier, I would have been able to get it published by a major publisher. But things are really surreal in the publishing industry right now. I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say that this is the worst time in the last hundred years to be trying to get a novel published. Unless you're already a celebrity or you happen to hit on the 'hot' topic of the moment (hint: vampires), your odds of being published by one of the big houses are ridiculously small. I got positive feedback from a number of literary agents, but in the end nobody wanted to take a chance on a quirky novel about a rogue angel written by a guy with an apparently unpronounceable last name. So my choice was to try to get it published by a smaller, independent press or to self-publish, and I just didn't see the advantage of going with an independent press. With any publisher, you lose a large amount of control over the book and you forfeit most of the book's revenues. Sure, you can say that you were published by a "real publisher," but who cares? There are tens of thousands of books published every year by "real publishers" that never make it to the shelves of Barnes & Noble. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I should add that it is absolutely not true that a self-published book will never be picked up by a major publisher -- or, for that matter, sell a hundred thousand copies without the help of a major publisher. Yesterday I got an email from someone at Barnes & Noble corporate asking me to send them a copy of my book so that they could consider stocking it. I have no idea where they even heard about Mercury Falls; I can only guess that enough customers asked them for it that it made it onto their radar. That's a nice email to get -- a lot nicer than the dozens of rejections I was getting from literary agents looking for the next pubescent vampire series.

4. You have a very dry and snarky sense of humor. I know your type. I'm one myself. As a child, did your mouth ever get you in trouble? Did you have trouble respecting authority figures?

There's a lot of Mercury in me. Or a lot of me in Mercury. I have a compulsive need to point out absurdities, and that includes the hypocrisies and idiosyncracies of the people that I'm supposed to respect. So yeah, I got in a fair amount of trouble in school, and I've been fired from a few jobs. I like to think I've grown up a bit, but I figure that if you've never been fired from a job, you're not pushing hard enough.

5. At one point in your blog-tales you were chronicling the progress of your home remodeling efforts. Did you ever complete your house and landscaping projects or do you still have a giant unfinished addition and a dirt yard?

I stopped blogging regularly shortly before the house was finished, so I never closed the loop on that whole saga. Yes, the house is done. My wife and I designed it ourselves (and I did a fair amount of actual construction work), and it's awesome to have a house that's exactly what we wanted.

6. For some reason I'm fascinated by the fact you own an almond orchard. Tell me about it. Is it still producing? How large is it? Do you farm it personally or lease it out to other growers? Does it provide income for you? Do you have almonds with every meal?

Yes, we have an almond orchard. And it's pronounced "amund," like "salmon." I live in the Almond Capital of the World, Ripon, California, so we get to decide how it's pronounced. We only have about 8 acres, so it's not really worth the trouble of farming it ourselves. We lease it to a guy who has like a bazillion acres in the area. Without giving an exact figure, I'll just say that it provides slightly less revenue than panhandling. It's like writing that way. And you can't really just pick almonds off the tree and eat them, because the nuts have this hull around them that you basically need a hammer to crack open. And if you go to the trouble of doing that, you get one tiny little almond that's kind of moist and squishy and bland, because it hasn't been dried, roasted or salted. So no, we don't have them with every meal.

7. Do you still work for Google? If so, what exactly do you do for them. And more importantly, can you get me a job there?
 

I'm always very careful to say I work "at" Google, not "for" Google. Technically I work for another company that's a subcontractor for Google. The company I work for manages inventory for tech companies -- basically, they help these companies keep their employees supplied with computers, monitors, mice, etc. For the past two years I've been building an asset tracking system for Google -- basically a system that allows them to track where all their laptops, monitors, etc. are once they've been deployed. You'd be surprised at how unsophisticated the tracking systems are at a lot of these high tech companies (and it's not just Google; we have contracts with lots of other big companies). These companies are so focused on growing and delivering products to their customers that pretty quick they've got a multi-billion dollar enterprise that's tracking its equipment on 26 different spreadsheets. Google is particularly surreal; they believe in giving their engineers basically anything the engineers need. It's standard, for example, to give an engineer a desktop PC, a laptop and two 26" flat panel monitors on the day they start. Which is awesome for the engineers -- but it would also be nice to be able to track where all this stuff is that you've given out. So, to answer your question, no.

8. I know you've thought about it... so who will play your characters in the movie?

For Mercury, I like Bruce Campbell (left) or maybe Simon Baker (you know, from "The Mentalist"). Will Smith would be great too. It's gotta be somebody with some swagger. Not sure about Christine. Maybe Zooey Deschanel (right). As for Karl (the Antichrist), I think Kevin Smith might be a fitting choice. (And this question isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. Hopefully I'll have more news on that in a few weeks.)

9. What's your next book going to be about?

Probably about a hundred pages shorter.

10. Finally... In the book, you described the title character this way: "Mercury was tall, maybe six foot four. He had the physique of a cyclist and the hands of a harpsichordist. He could just as well have been a long distance runner and concert pianist..." And, "His features were pronounced and aquiline. Deep set green eyes peered mischievously out from under his prominent brow."

Let's see... I'm 6'4", thin like a cyclist, I play the piano, have deep set green eyes and a prominent brow. You totally created that character after me didn't you.

That description was only in your copy. I customize it for everyone who buys the book. It's a lot of work, but well worth it for the joy it brings to my readers.
Ed note: That's very considerate... thank you. 

So there you have it folks... 10 questions with Rob (Diesel) Kroese. I hope you enjoyed it, and I highly recommend you buy his book. It's funny and smart and way worth the measly $12 they're selling it for on Amazon.

Buy the book on Amazon here
Visit the Mercury Falls web site here

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For real...

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